Irony in Neuromancer

In the final chapters of Gibson's Neuromancer, we are finally introduced to one of the remaining major characters of the novel. Case is still connected through his simstim unit to Molly, whose eye has been perversely crushed by Peter Riviera. Case learns through the link that 3Jane's mother, Marie-France Tessier, was the brain behind the Tessier-Ashpool AI's. 3Jane explains that Marie-France "was quite a visionary" and "imagined [the Tessier-Ashpools] in a symbiotic relationship with the AI's" to the point where these cyber constructs would make their "conscious decisions," rendering the family "immortal, a hive, each of [the relatives] units of a larger entity" (229). As Case and his Zionite backup Maelcum make their way to 3Jane's quarters where Molly is captive, he sees the image of the Finn who directs him to jack in. The Braun bot guiding him grasps his ankle in an effort to warn him, but Case continues with his orders.

Waking on a dull, grey beach with what looks like a city off in the distance, he is devastated to discover that the message was not from Wintermute. Imagining Ratz as he wanders around, the Ninsei bartender suggests Case has come to the beach to die. He presses on, finding Linda Lee in a bunker with a fire and food rations. Distraught, Case understands that the AI he last saw was "the other one" from Brazil not Wintermute, which tried to "warn [him] off with the Braun." He angrily acknowledges that he is flatlined, stuck in the middle of nowhere "with a ghost" of Linda just as he remembers her from before. Case realizes that the recurring images of Linda  he has encountered in his travels could not be from Wintermute, which found it "too tricky" to maintain such an emotionally charged construct. Linda explains how she arrived at the beach, found the bunker, and received food that washed up on the beach. She reveals that a "boy... on the beach" told her to expect Case who goes searching for the boy suspecting he is the Rio AI. Case finds the boy on the beach, who says his name is "Neuromancer... Neuro from the nerves... Romancer" taken from "Necromancer." The boy affirms that he is "the dead and their land" and urges Case to stay, affirming that "if [Linda] is a ghost, she doesn't know it" and Case will not tell the difference either. Neuromancer admits to Case, however, that "the choice is [his]" to stay or go. Case decides to leave and wakes up in the Villa Straylight, where Maelcum informs him he flatlined for almost five minutes. 

It's interesting that in the pursuit of immortality, the Tessier-Ashpools rely on technology so heavily – with AI's and cryogenic freezing – to the point where they become less human. This raises the question, can immortality and the human condition ever coincide? Even if technology enables people to live indefinitely, will those people still be what we call "human"? I think a lot of our instincts and actions stem from our awareness that life is finite, and I don't know that humanity would be the same without a time limit indirectly motivating our ambitions. Also, Neuromancer basically tells Case he is experiencing life after death and can choose to return to the living world or remain with Linda by accepting death. What if Case had not been jacked in? It almost seems like without death as a result of Neuromancer's intervention, Case would just be dead "meat" with no afterlife. Could you ever see technology serving a spiritual purpose?